Etymologically
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fluctuo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈfɫuːk.tu.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈfluk.tu.o][1]

Forms

flūctuō (present infinitive flūctuāre, perfect active flūctuāvī, supine flūctuātum); first conjugation[1] The deponent fluctuor is also used.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin flūctus (“wave”) + -ō.[2][4][1] flūctus is made from fluō (“to flow”),[5][1] which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *flow-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *bʰleuH-(e/o-) (“to flow (over)”), with cognates such as Ancient Greek φλύω (phlúō, “to seethe, boil over”).[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus uses it first: in the Rudens the sea surges strongly, and in the Mercator someone asks what if his mind is in turmoil.[2]

Semantic evolution

Of water it is to rise in waves, to surge: Plautus' sea.[2] By extension it is to move like waves, sway, ripple: Lucretius has the air raging in the winds.[2] It is also to be tossed by the waves: Cicero asks what is so common as the sea for those tossed on it and the shore for the castaways.[2] Most often it is figurative: of the mind, to be agitated, as in Plautus, and of passion, to seethe, as Virgil's anger seething within;[2] of a person or an opinion, to waver and hesitate, as the Rhetorica ad Herennium says of the people when Gracchus saw them waver;[2] of a battle-line, to falter, and of hopes, to hang in the balance, as Valerius Maximus says of the hope of victory.[2] Lewis & Short note the deponent fluctuor is perhaps not earlier than Augustus,[3] and Quintilian lists it among verbs used in both voices.[4] Stelten gives "be tossed about, waver, hesitate, be doubtful" for Church Latin.[7] The English fluctuate comes from its participle.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of the surging sea and of an agitated mind.[2]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius of the air moving in waves.[2]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of those tossed at sea.[2]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of anger seething.[2]
  • 1630s – fluctuate appears in English.[5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (of liquids) To rise in waves, surge, billow; to move like waves, sway, undulate.[2][3][1]
  2. To be tossed by the waves; to float.[2][3]
  3. (of the mind) To be agitated;[2][3][1] (of passion) to seethe.[2][3][1]
  4. To be in doubt, waver, hesitate;[2][3][1] (of a battle-line) to falter;[2][3][1] (of hopes) to hang in the balance.[2][3][1]

Word family

  • flūctuābundus
  • flūctuātim
  • flūctuātiō

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson